Keeping drivway weeds down

[Soundguy]

I agree with egon.. it will , in the end, be easier to just amend the soil with *something* to make it inhospitable to plant growth.

I bet a bag of CACL mix and a plastic scoop would work wonders.. be cheap too.. sprinkle some on every green spot, and then POOF! plant dies... won't grow back in that spot unless you dig the salted dirt up and replace with fresh..

soundguy

[EddieWalker]

One of the problems with working the gravel on the driveway is you are making it thinner every time you do this. Gravel needs to be a minimum of four inches thick to lock together. When you scrape it, you are taking off some of the rock in one place and moving it to another. When it rains, some of this material is lost. Over time, this happens anyway, but you are just speeding up the process.

The best way to get rid of weeds is to kill them with a spray. If that isn't an option, you can burn them with a torch that is designed for this.

Eddie

[ampsucker]

i, too, have considered poisoning the soil with rock salt or something. i just hate to do that and think something like salt will quickly wash away as it dissolves in heavy rains.

i am currently using generic roundup and have to do it regularly. the stuff they tried to sell as a preventive mixed with roundup didn't really work for us.

i think it would be virtually impossible to lime up the pH to the point nothing will grow. here in missouri, weeds grow out of essentially limestone rock or soil that is finely ground limestone. if it can grow through 4 inches of white rock, it is pretty much going to be able to tolerate any pH you could get with lime.

i have some old oil i was thinking of spraying. folks used to use diesel oil to kill weeds but at today's prices, that isn't very economical not to mention the view of this practice by the epa.

you could try some type of pre-emergent product to keep weed seeds from germinating. but, around here, we have something green almost year round. i was spraying the driveway last month to kill some pretty tall assoted weeds (early march).

i agree that raking would disturb the compaction of the top layer of rock and could result in erosion problems in certain slopes.

i am also thinking of trying a systemic herbicide that basically kills everything green but works through the roots (roundup is absorbed through the leaves) and has some staying power (up to a year). i can't remember what it is called, but it worked well to kill a tree i was removing for a deck. i didn't want the thing to come back form the stump, so i sprayed it good and soaked the soil a few weeks before cutting it down. it did the trick, 4 years later, nothing came up under the deck.

something like that might work for weeds in the driveway, and be a once per year application. just make sure you watch the dripline of any thing you want to keep as it will kill most any plant life. if i can find out the name of the product i'll post it up. it was similar to brush-b-gone but designed to be poured around the roots with a watering can instead of applied by spraying. it says on the label you cannot use it for lawn or garden renovation because it will inhibit growth for several seasons.

amp

[schmism]

my driveway maintance routine has evolved into.

i use my RB3572 rear blade

pass down the middle sq/flat blade set as deep as it will cut (ie 3pt in float)
return home hitting any high spots that need extra attention.

tilt blade to drag material to center, tilt to cut crown.
pass to end and back twice staying wide to cut sholder and drag any lost material back up on top.

set blade to flat and sq, smooth out built up area in center. useually down and back creates the major path that cars use every day.

Total width of drive when i bought the property was about 8', there was plenty of base there, it had just been grown over. It now streches about 12' and have virtually no grass.

My driveway maintance occurs about 2-3 times a year. Late winter on a warm day, middle of spring (these 2 are only a couple of months apart) and later summer early fall.

[ToadHill]

If you can find a product called Sieara give it a try. It is used by power companies to keep all vegetation from growing up around power stations.

[Soundguy]

Yeah right.. just tell that to anyone who has had a loaded tire pop in their yard, and that dead spot stays there for a few years where the CACL leaked out...

soundguy

Originally Posted by ampsucker

i, too, have considered poisoning the soil with rock salt or something. i just hate to do that and think something like salt will quickly wash away as it dissolves in heavy rains.


amp

[Egon]

If high PH may not be workable how about adding sulphur and lowering the PH?

[ray66v]

I spray Roundup on my drive, as needed, once in the spring. And then put down Preen. This has eliminated 99% of my problems.

[nwphil]

Lots of good input. It's possible that no matter how organically/inorganically inhospitable the drive is made, some weeds will always grow. Plus, as one of you observed, the "toxin" will leach into the surrounding soil.

Scraping would have to be deep enough to get the roots. A good job would move the gravel around but not deplete it.

Maybe the ATV sprayer will have to be the answer.

[RalphVa]

If you want to use a natural product, use some vinegar on weeds. That'll kill them.

Ralph